LEWES HISTORY
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
MARCH 2019
CATO & PETER LEWIS,
BLACKS, SHIPYARD
The last 'stop' removed,
the sloop's hull on the 'way' sat still awaiting a nudge by
Peter Lewis, then started it's slide into Lewes Creek, bobbed a
few minutes, then moored to a small pier.
Peter, the black owner with
his father Cato, was pleased, the launch was good. Now ship
builders could move on board and to install the masts and
rigging.
During the 1880's
shipyards were not much more than a clear spot on the Creek, maybe
a small shed house as an 'office' and storage place with 'ways'
which needed to be properly built so
at launch the ship did not
go through a strain and damage it.
Cato and Peter's shipyard
was on Pilottown Road, at the St. Georges AME church and
cemetery. Perter was also the pastor there. When Lewes' ship
building declined. Peter Lewes moved
his shipyard to Milton in
1832 and built a two mast schooner. Lewis was not the only black
shipbuilder in Milton, as Milton's population included blacks
working as Sailors, masons, blacksmiths and carpenters.
Elisha Prettyman , a
blackman, born in the 1790's was a skilled carpenter and ship
builder
building sloops and in 1850
held real estate worth several thousand dollars. Prettyman, with
more wealth that 80% of the town population, still because of being
black , was not allowed to engage
in other lines of
business like merchant, attorney, physician, or to gain an upper
education. .
Abstract: Michael
Morgan's Delawar
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